On January 25, the nominations for the 83rd annual Academy Awards were announced. A film about a website received eight nominations This wouldn’t have been possible five years ago.
The Social Network is important because Mark Zuckerberg changed our lives. It is about how we communicate, how we share, and how we approach every aspect of life. Although some people still avoid Facebook, its influence cannot be denied: we are the Facebook Generation. In the 1970s, films about the Vietnam War revealed something inherently horrible about what was going on. For us, The Social Network is our lives televised, filmed in an intelligent and thought-provoking way.
While 2010 will be looked back on as an excellent year in filmmaking, no other film was as pertinent, socially and ideologically, as The Social Network. I was riveted by Black Swan, entranced by Inception, and entertained by Toy Story 3, but I am not a ballerina, dream interceptor, or action figure: I am a Facebook user. And this is what makes the film so significant, and why it should win Best Picture: it’s both good and relevant. The Oscars, for a long time, have been seen as outdated. But this year, something feels different. Young, talented actors and actresses are up against Hollywood heavyweights. Subjects are diverse and deserve the interest of the audiences they attempt to bring in. A film about a website directed towards “the college experience” is up for the same awards as a film depicting a king being taught to speak properly, the latter being a natural Oscar contender. The Social Network, a premise that could have been turned into a boring movie, became a film of both restraint and intense dialogue; it’s visually arresting, and showed that filmmaking today can look modern, but feel classic.
In the past few years, dinosaurs ruled the Oscars stage, but with The Social Network, it feels like our generation has won something for itself. The film stars young people, it’s about young people, and it’s for young people. Although written and directed by veterans of the filmmaking world (Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher, respectively), the film is innately young. And that is why the Academy should hand this film all the awards. Simply put, this is a film that matters. While others may have been more impressive, more grand, more beautiful, The Social Network was the most real. It felt like life transplanted to screen, only more exciting. The film is crisp, clean, and perfect. The filmmakers don’t judge or comment, but interpret, which is exactly what a great movie should do. It leaves the audience to decide what they think of the characters and of the real people they are meant to portray.
The character of Zuckerberg isn’t actually Zuckerberg, but that doesn’t deter us from commenting on him as a real person because he is in some ways our own: a young, brilliant kid who knew what he wanted, got it, and ran with it.
Throughout the film, there’s an underlying sense that we are watching ourselves and our fate unfold before us. There may have been MySpace and Friendster and all of those other “revolutionary” sites before, but none have had a film made about them. And this is why Facebook is important, and why The Social Network is important. On February 27, we’ll find out if the Academy agrees.
